Silent & Unseen: A Rainbow Six Siege Story
by TheGamerMarine76
Summary: A group of operators from Team Rainbow are sent to Syria to take down a White Mask stronghold situated there. But, little do they know, that the course of their mission will change their lives, the lives of others, and the future of Team Rainbow, forever.
1. Prologue

Location: Somewhere in the Syrian desert

Time: Just before sunset

Date: May 11, 2018

Two men exited a pickup truck and walked over to a tent in the middle of the desert. Inside the tent was a group of more men surrounding a table with something on top that is covered with a tarp. Most of the men were holding AKs with their faces covered, the guy closest to the table had a sidearm but didn't have it drawn. The two men who had arrived only had pistols with one extra clip each.

"What is it?" The man asked. He was Arab looking, despite having a fit body, a tall height, and a beard.

"It's North Korean, Pogpung-3 MIRV, 250-500 kilotons of nominal yield in this one warhead," The man who was closest to the table said.

"Wow."

"Wow, indeed," The dealer said.

"How much do you want," The Arab looking man asked. His friend was behind him standing watch.

"1.5."

"Tell you what, I'll give you 2 just to take it off of you right now," The man offered. The dealer thought about it for a second.

"Deal." The two then shook hands and completed the transaction. They loaded the big, heavy object onto the truck and left.

"What are we gonna do now? You know that we can profit from that hunk of metal," The other man said pointing at the back of the pickup.

"I gotta do something, something not good. I can't hold back from our cause," The first man said. "This is just the icing on the cake, not yet the main event even."

"Whatever you say then, I'll just follow you wherever you go," The other man said and laid back on his seat. The first man just nodded and continued to drive.

 _Long live the White Mask..._

* * *

Sometime later...

A group of about seven individuals dressed in full military-grade equipment had raided the camp and has apprehended everyone and has them lined up at gunpoint. The individuals' faces were all covered, but they were obviously special forces. What's more intriguing was that they had the flag of a different nation and a symbol of something that supposedly doesn't exist.

"Where is it?" The individual who seemed to be the commander of the group asked the dealer. Earlier they had beaten him up to soften him for questioning.

"I don't know, they just took it and left, they went that way," The dealer said pointing to the east, "That's all I know I swear!"

"Sir, you may want to take a look at this," Another man said bringing over a modified iPad of some sort. The commander took it and reviewed the information.

"Wow, you are one unlucky person," He said, and turned the iPad to face the man, "You've been scammed, that 2 million was ghost money."

The man didn't say anything.

"Hey, did you guys find anything over there?" The commander asked the rest of his team.

"Nothing sir, no sign of the weapon anywhere, no tracks to follow too," One of the other individuals said, "We could try to follow the car tracks."

"Sir, weather report," The second guy handed him the iPad which was now turned to a different application, "Sandstorm coming in from the south commander, ETA five minutes."

 _Do cholery,_ he sighed. "Alright, let's wrap it up!"

"Sir," The third man called out to him, "What of the survivors?"

The commander just looked at him plainly then said, "What survivors?" The man nodded and they aimed their weapons. The commander switched the frequency on his radio, and in the background were the sounds of the hostiles being given swift, and painless endings. "Chariot, this is Archangel1-1 requesting extract at our location over."

"Archangel this is Chariot, can you confirm that LZ is secure?" The pilot said. The CO looked over his shoulder and saw his team stacking up the bodies in a pile.

"That is an affirmative Chariot," he replied.

"Roger that Archangel, we are 1 klick north of your position please stand by."

"Affirmative, thank you chariot," The CO switched off his radio, and regrouped with his team. About half a minute later the helicopter had arrived and they all got in and left the area just in time before the dust storm rolled in and buried all the evidence.

 **AN: Greetings everyone! Welcome to my latest fanfiction. The rest of the introduction is at the next part, but here's something, the Pogpung-3 is a fictional weapon, I just don't know the names for the real warheads, that's it the rest of the info will be shown further into the story...**


	2. Chapter 1: The Tempest

**AN: Greetings to y'all! I've just been surfing the internet for a couple weeks now when I discovered Rainbow Six Siege. Well, not really discovered, I've known the game for a long time already, and being a fan of Tom Clancy I even own a giant ass copy of the Rainbow Six book. I was just able to develop an interest in it the past couple of months and was able to come up with a bunch of ideas. One of which is this. Also please keep in mind that I'm also working on a bunch of other fanfictions over at the other side, and I'm a grade 10 student (during the time this chapter was published) who is drowning in school work, and I'm a CAT officer (only Filipinos will get that last part.) So yeah, life is the most enjoying torture chamber ever! Anyway, enough rambling and let's get on with the story.**

 **One last thing, this whole chapter is basically just Ela's story, with a couple of irrelevant additions. So if you want to, feel free to jump to the next chapter.**

Location: Hereford Base, Herefordshire, England

Time 13:00

Date: June 1, 2018

It was a typical day at Hereford base in England. The sky was filled with clouds looking like it was gonna rain, a common sight at this part of the world. Regardless of that, the SAS recruits continued with their usual training. One of which is jogging the entire perimeter of the base. Hereford began as a non-flying station for the RAF until the end of the 20th century where it became the forge for new SAS commandos.

But that was only one side to the coin which is the base. Hereford was also the headquarters of the world's most elite counter-terrorism unit, Rainbow Six. With all the mess Rainbow has to go through, it's not very surprising that Rainbow has been forced to make a mess themselves on one or two occasions.

 _That's why it's a secret,_ A female thought as she strolled across the base grounds.

Rainbow dealt with the messiest of anything related to terrorism across the globe. Hereford was also the home to Rainbow's backbone, it's operators. They had living quarters and facilities that would accommodate the current number of operators. All of the operators were currently on base either training, resting, inspecting equipment, waiting for something to happen, or some other stuff; but mostly waiting for something to happen.

One of those operators was Elzbieta 'Ela' Bosak, one of the two GROM operators from Poland. She took an afternoon walk around the base to enjoy the silence and solitude. She heard that there was a football game over at America so the recreational area was full of people trying to watch the game through the 110-inch flat screen they had over there. Ela was not the kind of person who enjoyed large crowds. She saw a trio of men playing football (not American) over at the field. They saw her and waved at her, she returned the gesture with a smile.

Ela had a sister, Zofia Bosak, who was the other GROM operative in Rainbow. The two of them are the only ones who are related to each other, sure there are the occasional 'relationships' that was to be expected between the operators of Rainbow but no one was really blood-related, unlike the Bosak sisters. Director Six was uneasy at first about having operators who were related to one another since there was a small percentage that it would impair them from fulfilling each other's duties. Especially in Rainbow. She would later know that it won't matter since Ela pretty much hated everything about her sister. She once called both of them to the range for a simple exercise. The goal was to shoot a portrait of each other down range with a given situation. Zofia was reluctant to shoot her sister's photograph, although it wasn't really Ela something about shooting her sister's photograph was really deep to her. It took a while before she was pressured to let one fly to her sister's portrait.

Ela, on the other hand, was a different story. Once it was her turn for the test it didn't take more than a second for her to start dumping her magazine at the picture of her sister. Six was slightly taken aback by this, it was as if to Ela it wasn't her sister but an enemy who is a threat to her existence. But Six also noticed that she didn't fire immediately, she hesitated a little bit to think. Once Ela began to fire she kept her finger locked tightly on the trigger, once her mag was empty she examined the photo, she wasn't satisfied. She reloaded and continued to fire. Ela even drew her sidearm to finish off what was left of the photograph.

Six was surprised at what she saw. She concluded that they were complete opposites of each other. Zofia was exactly how Six expected her to be, but Ela though was different. Although Ela obliterated her sister's photograph when she hesitated conflict may have happened in her head meaning that there was a softer side to her, one that didn't hate her sister. In truth, Six had no idea what was going on inside Ela's head, it may be anything so she left it to her imagination. Six concluded that they were 100% fit for duty afterward.

Ela never always hated her sister. In fact, there was once a time when she loved her more than anything else. When they were only kids they had almost no other friends, no other people to support them, but each other. They always had each other's backs. Zofia would teach Ela some close quarters combat techniques she got from their father, and Ela would teach Zofia how to get out of certain situations with anything she had. That was Ela's expertise, countering threat networks. One time when Zofia couldn't fight off her enemies, Ela swooped in sometime later and made the attackers destroy each other from their own inner circle. They were certainly the best of friends. It was unfortunate how much that was going to change.

Once they were both in high school, things got really hard really quickly. Ela found it difficult to commit herself into the strict military lifestyle. The problems piled up day by day with only a few solutions being made. What's worse was their father's expectations. From the start, Zofia was constantly maintaining a line of excellence in everything she did, but things were different for Ela. She was struggling a lot; it seemed like no matter how hard she tried, no matter how far she threw herself over the edge, no matter what she did it was never going to get any less difficult for her. It also wasn't just more than where Ela was actually working harder than Zofia. Ela never cared whether Zofia was better than her. All she wanted was to be able to make her father proud of her. But that was never going to happen. Due to the constant flow of achievements, Zofia was receiving their father had always praised her and has clearly favored her more than the other. This caused the divide between the two sisters which only got wider. Their attitude towards each other changed. Zofia, who was once Ela's best friend was now her enemy. And ever since, Ela had kept a personal objective, that was to keep as little contact with her elder sister as possible.

As the years passed Ela was still doing her best in all she did with little fruit. But when she did achieve something she still didn't receive even a single nice word from her father. And then there were the disciplinary actions. Both Ela and Zofia weren't immune from them, and they'd get them often. Their father always used the more verbal approach using his mouth to do the punishing. But it always seemed like it was less hurtful for Zofia. Despite that, Ela still did all she could to try and get at least one praise from her father. Then something happened. Ela could be compared to a star, through its lifespan a star would get brighter and brighter until it eventually explodes into a supernova. That's what happened to Ela, because of the special attention she received in the military high school she attended because of her father's role as the GROM commander she was constantly bullied in school. And this kept on going and going even adding with all the other bad stuff going on with her life proved to be too much for young Elzbieta Bosak, and one day, six months before her graduation she was bullied by a group of guys at the school. Ela tried to warn them off but when they persisted it tipped her over, that was the last straw for her, she snapped. She assaulted the boys almost fatally injuring one of them in the process, and this caused her expulsion. She transferred to another academy but her lack of attendance caused her to be transferred again to a small local high school. She eventually finished and graduated from high school. After that, she wanted nothing but to get out of the house and find a life on her own terms. She decided to go to Berlin to study fine arts there. One thing Ela was undeniably good at was drawing. Her father refused to allow her because she wanted her to join the military same with her sister, but that didn't matter to Ela. She planned to just leave one night when her father was supposedly asleep. The moment had set her course to where she is now, and its memory still plays in her head like a DVD.

Ela had her stuff packed, her mindset and she was ready to go. She left a letter on the dinner table stating her intentions. She opened the front door quietly and made one step out.

"Where do you think you're going?" Asked the voice of an aging man.

Ela looked to her left and saw a lamp turn on. It revealed an old man sitting cross-legged on a chair looking at her. There was a pistol on the little table next to him.

"I'm going to get out of here, and live my based on my own terms," Ela replied. "Papa."

Jan Bosak stood from his seat and walked to his daughter. This made Ela tense. The Bosak man gave her a look of disappointment.

"I guess there is no stopping you, you are a big girl already anyway," Jan said. "But if you take one more step, you will no longer be my daughter, and you will be completely on your own. And with all the wrong you've done, how do you expect to get anywhere?"

Ela thought about this. He was right actually, there was no guarantee she'd be accepted in the first place anyway, but if she stayed at home she still had a place she could stay, food she could eat, and quite a number of things she's just realizing now. Ela thought about it and made up her mind. She moved her left foot forward and she was out.

"I don't know if I'll end up anywhere Papa, but one thing's for certain," She said while not looking back, "I'll never get anywhere if I stay stuck here, with you, and Zofia."

"So be it," She then heard the door close behind her. She was now free but also on her own.

Ela had spent two years at a fine arts college in Berlin, Germany. She also spent some time there learning other things. She was really good at what she did and found nothing difficult. If she kept it up, she would've been a great artist. But no, her interest started to fade as the appeal of her old life slowly caught up to her.

Ela was given a tempting offer when she made the acquaintance of the owner of a small private military company. Craving the adventure and financial independence she took the offer, hoping that her role as a contractor would differ from the simplistic compliance she experienced at the military academy. During her first years of deployment in Iraq, she gained a reputation on the field. Known to possess an impressive range of abilities, her attitude was the only obstacle standing in her way. Ela would find it hard to recognize authority sometimes, probably because of her rough childhood. Regardless of that, she was seen as a prized addition to any team and a valuable asset, but her employers would still monitor her closely to investigate reports of authority issues.

Around this time period, Ela had been educated in weapons engineering and had developed the first prototype of a non-lethal concussion mine that can be used in counter-IED operations. She called them the Grzmot mine.

After a pretty rough but successful operation in Baghdad, she received a piece of information from Poland, her first account of home since she left the country four years prior. She still remembers that dreadful night.

Ela had just returned to the base after a successful operation in the capital city of Baghdad. Once she and her squad disembarked from the MRAPs they headed straight for the tents.

"Hey Bosak, come on over to the mess will ya, and let's celebrate!" Her fellow contractor said.

"Not tonight Kevin I'm tired, besides you'd hog away all the food before I can even get a plate," Ela said.

"Hey that was one time and one time only, and I was hungry, do you know what three days with nothing but a couple MRE's feel like?" Kevin asked.

"No, but I do know what a week of no food feels like."

Kevin stayed quiet.

"I thought so, now get away from me, just make sure you leave some for breakfast or I'll put a bullet in your head," Ela said.

"K then, as you wish boss gal," Kevin said sarcastically before running off.

Ela headed straight for her tent and dropped her stuff on the ground and set her M4 carbine on a table. She removed her kevlar vest and jacket. Then she got a knock from outside.

"Who's there?" She said.

"Elżbieta Bosak?" The man asked

"Speaking."

"May I come in?" The man said in Polish. Ela thought about it for a moment and sighed.

"Tak," She replied keeping her pistol close to her.

The man entered the tent and looked at Ela. He was about 6 ft tall, wearing a Polish army dress uniform and was holding a manila envelope. Ela already knew what this meant.

"Elżbieta Bosak, daughter of former GROM commander Jan Bosak?" The man asked again.

"Tak," Ela said again slightly annoyed. She never liked hearing her father's name.

"My name is corporal Antoni, with the Polish army. I am here about your father," Corporal Antoni said.

"What about my father?" Ela asked.

"He has committed suicide, one week earlier in his office at the Ministry of Interior building in Warsaw," Antoni reported.

"I see," Ela said. A part of her was a little glad that her father was now permanently out of her life, but the other bigger part was saddened by this information. He may have been terrible, but he was still her father. Antoni then approached Ela and gave her the envelope.

"When we found your father's body he had two letters with him. One told us to give his flag to you. The other was addressed to you so we didn't open it. It's inside the envelope along with the flag," Antoni explained.

"Dziękuję Ci," Ela said.

Antoni gave her a nod before turning and leaving her. Ela put her M4 down onto the side of the table and sat down and opened the envelope. She first removed the red and white flag folded in a triangular fashion and set it down gently on the table. She then saw a smaller white envelope and took it. It had the words "To Ela" written in her father's cursive handwriting at the front. She opened it and out came a letter, written on a sheet of bond paper, and two keys attached to a ball link chain. She set aside the keys and began to read the letter.

 _Dear Ela_

 _If you are reading this then I have passed already. I am probably the last thing that you will ever want to think off in your entire life, I know that you dislike me a lot. And I understand why because it is my fault you feel that way. And I am deeply sorry for it. My words may not mean anything to you but please hear me out, for one last time at least. When Zofia was born I said that she would be the vessel that would carry on my legacy as she was the first and the eldest. But when you were born, it hit me, you were not going to carry on my legacy, but you would be the one to carry on the legacy of the entire family while doing countless good for the family. Your grandfather had said the same about me, but I was not strong enough to do so, but you, on the other hand, had a fresh chance. So I had to make it hard on both of you, to train and prepare you for the cruelty of our world; the hardships, the pain, I wanted to make sure the two of you were ready for it, especially you. But I was so lost after the death of your mother and the fear that you two weren't going to be ready in time, so I failed to realize that I was no longer strengthening you and helping you, and was, in fact, breaking you already. I was punishing you when I was supposed to be rewarding you for your achievements. Despite all of your failures, you would always succeed anyway in the end._

 _That night when you left was the worst night of my entire life. When I closed that door and watched you leave, I felt like I had made the worst decision in my life. I wanted to go after you and plead you to come back, but I couldn't allow myself to do so because I was weakened by my own pride. I fooled myself that you were going to just come back after a while, I stood at the door ready to welcome you back and tell you I'm sorry for hours, but that was never going to happen._

 _To sum it all up, the truth is that I love you Ela so much, you and Zofia, you are my only two daughters that a monster like me was lucky and undeserving to have. I am proud of what you have become, and what you have accomplished. It pains me so much that I am writing this letter instead of being able to tell it to you, face to face. There is nothing that I won't give to have you and your sister back with me, to have both you back in my arms, to get back the times when the two of you were only children playing around the house and breaking flower vases. Those were the best years of my life. It's now too late for that, and sadly it's the end of the line for me, but not for you. Stay strong and keep pushing forward moja umiłowana córka. And please accept my apology and please never forget me. To make sure you have a place to stay when you return to Poland I've left you the house in Wroclaw. The key should be inside the envelope along with this letter. It's yours now, Zofia has her own house up north anyway._

 _Anyway, I'm running out of space on this paper. Just now that I love you so much, and I will never leave your side again. Carry on to victory moja umiłowana Ela._

 _-Papa_

Ela tried and failed to keep herself from crying. All this time she thought her father was the worst of them all, it turns out he was just trying to harden her for what came ahead because he loved her so much. Ela was furious at herself for not realizing it sooner. Maybe it was because of her young, selfish self that always victimized herself.

"I forgive you papa, and I am sorry as well," She said as she cried. "I promise that I'll get better and I will never forget you."

The next few months, Ela had spent earning a little more cash. While she was doing that she was thinking heavily about her father. She would later decide to head back to Poland and enlist in the JW GROM. She then terminated her contract, and her friends in the private military company gave her, as a parting gift, her iconic weapon, the Scorpion Evo 3 A1. The scorpion was a pretty nice gun, Ela was willing to trade the higher damage, longer range, and lower rate of fire of the M4 to being able to pump more 9mm lead into the enemy from a shorter range.

Once Ela was back in Poland she took a couple of days to get settled back in. After a week she went straight to the GROM HQ in Warsaw. Two months later she was in. All of the tests, courses, and training she went through, she all passed in flying colors. Despite her rebellious attitude, the superior officers of GROM decided that it would be a waste to let her go. Before she knew it, she was being deployed.

Ela was first put into the ring of issues in the local area of Poland doing police work and SWAT business. Then she was sent back to the middle east, she was first put into an EOD squad but then she got into the better stuff. Among the GROM Ela had developed an expertise in Countering Threat Networks (CTN). She was sent on multiple missions where she would essentially be dismantling threat networks in hotspots. She was becoming known for doing dirty work cleanly. Then she was sent on a joint operation with the US Navy SEALs where she met her best friend Meghan J. Castellano aka Valkyrie. They were conducting an operation tasked in dismantling an entire major terror network in Syria. It was codenamed Operation: Orange Sky. Orange Sky was almost a flawless success for an operation. The entire network came crumbling down with the leaders all dead and with no civilian casualties as well. Collateral damage was also very minimum. This is how Ela had appeared in Team Rainbow's radar. Her CO gave her a letter coming from the Minister of National Defense. Two days later she was on a plane headed to England. She was really quiet at first but was able to reach out a little thanks to her friend Valkyrie.

And now, here we are back at the present, Ela walking down the street not knowing that in only a few hours, she's going to get the ride of her life.

 **AN: And that concludes chapter 1 ladies and gentlemen. If you are still reading this then you must be a really good person, thank you.**

 **And I plan on reusing this whole first chapter in another story I might be writing in the distant future.**

 **Anyway, thank you again for sticking with me, and may you have a good day and God bless!**


	3. Chapter 2: Briefing

**AN: Go check out** **reactiverainbow** **, he wrote some very nice stories, I'm saying this because I'm taking inspirations from one of his stories. I only do this because I'm bored and it's a nice hobby, I'm not making money off it and I don't want to take credit. So please don't cite me or sue me. Please. Anyway, let's get into the story.**

 **Oh yeah, there's a part in this chapter where I mention American football, and I most definitely screwed something up there, so please be gentle.**

Location: Hereford Base, Herefordshire, England

Time 13:10

Date: June 1, 2018

An executive jet could be seen landing at the airfield adjacent to the main compound. It taxied to the ramp and stopped. Two men in business attire disembarked the aircraft and got into a black sedan which sped to the main compound.

Ela looked at her watch, it's about time she starts heading back. As she neared the compound a black sedan sped past her, and there happened to be a mud puddle at that spot too.

"Aw, skurwysyn!" Ela added as she wiped her face, "Dupek!" Well, that's her afternoon gone. She saw the sedan continue until it reached the main compound. Two men in black business attire hurried inside the compound. _This ought to be interesting,_ Ela thought.

The two men exited the vehicle, passed through security, and hurried into the building. They bypassed all the areas used for the living, training, and planning of the operators and went straight to Director Six's office.

"This better be good Steve," She said in a cold emotionless voice while not taking her eyes off of the monitor of her computer.

"Oh it's good Six," Steve said, "It doesn't get any better than this."

Six looked up from her monitor and motioned to take a seat across from her. "Shoot," she said.

"Director Six, this here is James my colleague from MI6, he'll be doing most of the talking," Steve said pointing at James.

"Hello, Director Six. Now, my agency has done some analysis on the stuff that we had on the threat board for the middle east and we saw that the global terrorist group known as the White Masks may be trying to align themselves with all the other different terrorist groups there. The Islamic State, Al Qaeda, everyone. They're basically trying to create one giant network in that part of the globe. In other words, they are expanding," James explained. "Although it's unclear to us why they would put themselves in such a risk in being compromised with trying to expand. To the best extent of our knowledge is that the Masks have a bottomless pool of resources and already have the capability to strike anywhere on the globe, so it doesn't make sense."

"I see, but what does that have to do with me and Rainbow?" Six asked.

Steve took a deep breath first before answering, "We're planning to send a handful of your team in to gather intel and destroy the network."

Six sat up, "What?" She exclaimed, "I'm sorry to tell you that I have to say no to this."

"Six, we both know that Rainbow is more than qualified to take on something like this, not to mention the promising records on some of your operators," Steve said.

"I get that, but Rainbow was never designed to do this kind of work, we're more of a shield than a sword. And the number of operators who have experience and training in this type of duty is more limited than you think," Six explained.

"We only need you to send a minimal number of operators, 5-7 would be enough. And they will be guided and assisted by an MI6 operative who is operating undercover in the area for some time now. He was the one who helped us obtain a lot of the information we have," James said.

Six thought about for a moment, "I still don't understand why you would ask my organization to do this. Why can't _they_ do it?" Six asked. _They_ referring to another organization, the name of which cannot be disclosed.

"That's actually the main reason we're here. They're not available right now, they've got way too much on their hands already. And we can't by time to wait for them to get it done. This threat is serious and it has to be dealt with right now. Each day that passes brings them closer to achieving whatever the hell they plan on doing," Steve said. "And besides, this operation is probably not going to be completely clean. As far as the world knows, Rainbow doesn't exist, another factor that makes it ideal to take it on."

A moment of silence, "When would they be deployed?" Six asked.

"In two weeks they have to be on deck already," James said.

There was an awkward silence as Six contemplated what she was gonna say, "Fine. I'll send a single team in to clean it up," Six reluctantly said. "Just make sure to cover my operators if something happens."

Steve could see the worried expression on her face, "Don't worry Six, I'm willing to gamble all my faith in Rainbow to get it done and not regret it. And we'll always keep you and your team updated in case anything changes, and if _they_ are good already then we'll pull out your team and let the others take care of it. And we'll even increase Rainbows funding and add a few more zeros to the checks of the operators who would be going. We won't be leaving you guys in the dark."

This reassured Six a little bit, "Alright then, just give me the file for the rest of the mission details and the two of you can leave."

James took out an envelope that was made a little tick by all of the papers inside of it from his suitcase and set it down on the desk. The two said more formalities before leaving. After they left, Six buried her face in her hands. _God, I need a vacation,_ Six thought to herself.

She eventually straightened out and began the process of choosing the right operators for her to send into that hellhole. She first studied the nature of the mission through the file that was given to her, she made sure not to overlook a single detail. It sucked, that was an understatement. The mission objective was to strike the heart of the network, in the middle of an active battlefield in Syria, in the middle of no man's land. They would be sent straight into the middle of the hornet's nest which was ironic since the code name of the operation was Hornets Nest. The intel was not complete but it did say that the White Masks along with other terrorist had a stronghold situated in the war-torn city of Raqqa, Syria where they would plan out all of their operations. The objective was straightforward: gather intel on the White Masks, find exactly where that base is, infiltrate it and gather more intel, kill or capture any high ranking White Mask official, and destroy the compound.

After that, Six began the choosing process of the operators to be sent. She loaded in the files of all the operators Rainbow currently had. She needed operators with the experience and expertise for the mission, which was the intelligence gathering part and the dismantling part.

The first two were straightforward, Six isolated the files of Elzbieta 'Ela' Bosak, and Megan 'Valkyrie' J. Castellano. The two would possess the most experience in the mission that was going to be undertaken, coming from their part in Operation: Orange Sky where they did exactly what the mission is about.

The next was Erik 'Maverick' Thorn, he was US army became intelligence officer serving in Kabul, when he was recruited by the Unit or US Army Delta Force. One time while he was investigating a missing reporter when the Unit lost contact with him. After two years of silence, he re-emerged with enough intel to dismantle a major insurgency operation. He was also proficient in the languages that they will encounter in the area.

After sifting through the files Six found another useful operator. Taina 'Caveira' Pereira, her skills and expertise as an interrogator would be useful in case the team picked up someone who needed questioning. Plus she's skilled in remaining as quiet as possible which can be used in infiltration operations.

Six also added in Jordan 'Thermite' Trace. Jordan had served two tours in Iraq as a Marine before he was discharged but his primary role is to become the demolition expert of the group, tasked with blowing the enemy installation.

Six read through each file some more, she decided to send in someone that has experience in medicine to become the teams medic just in case it got too hot and someone was hurt. She picked up the file of Doc but didn't add him in because he was needed on base so she took Lion's file instead. Olivier 'Lion' Flament was Rainbows lead CBRN specialist. Although his expertise was as a biohazard expert, he had undergone a medical course as well making him capable of filling out the role as a medic.

Now Six needed a leader. After some more sifting, Six found the best operator to be squad lead. Mike 'Thatcher' Baker was perfect due to his age and experience. Six doesn't send him out on missions as frequent as before but he covers it by training the SAS recruits on site. Highly observant, calculating and decisive, Baker's demeanor may denote traces of impatient cynicism, but he possesses a profound sense of ethical responsibility. He does best when assigned with junior operators of strong moral conviction, whom he can mentor.

And that was that the team was complete. In total there were going to be 7 operators who would be sent for the mission, a little over the normal number of operators Six would send on a normal mission, but then again, this was not a normal mission and Six was not taking any chances.

Despite knowing the capabilities of her operators she was still worried; this was probably the first time she was ever worried. Although acting cold, ruthless, and emotionless around her operators, she cannot deny that she had a soft spot for them. She cared for her operators, they were human after all, not some expendable drone that she can always replace; competent operators for Rainbow don't just grow on trees.

There was gonna be another person with them. Six had studied the file of the undercover MI6 operative who was going to guide the team along the way. The agent, codename: Spectre, looked promising in the file. Serving with MI6 for sixteen years, five years as an undercover operative, and in all of the places he was sent to, he has always given accurate information and remained faithful to the agency. So there shouldn't be much of a problem with trusting him. But Six would ask Mike to keep an eye on him just in case.

Speaking of Mike, Six took the desk phone next to her and dialed the phone of Mike Baker. She would've used the PA system to call all of them if it weren't undergoing repairs.

After a few rings, Six heard the voice of an aged man, "Baker," Mike said.

"Mike, it's Six, please proceed to my office ASAP," Six ordered.

"Right away ma'am," Mike replied and hung up.

After about a couple of minutes, Mike Baker entered Six's office. "What's the urgency Director?" Mike asked.

"Please take a seat," Six pointed at the seat across of her and Mike took a seat. Six gave him the list of operators and an overview of the mission. Six thought it best to have him briefed at least a little bit already. "Go and find them and bring them back here, and I'll tell you the rest," Six told him.

"Sure thing Six," Mike stood up and exited the room. He began trekking the large compound in search for the operators. Mike first went over to the common area where he knew there would be a fairly large concentration of people due to the football game their watching. There should be a couple of them there.

Mike had just arrived in the nick of time. It looks like the game has just finished and everyone was filling out. Mike noticed the emotions on everyone's faces, some were of joy while others were of frustration. He immediately noticed the two operators he was looking for.

"Goddamn, what a game!" Erik Thorn exclaimed.

"Damn right it was," Jordan Trace said while slumped on the couch.

"One point, one fucking point man! If he hadn't pulled that hail mary, Detroit would've been toast," Erik said as he began to pick up his belongings.

"Yup, that was friggin lucky. What'd Ya think Craig?" Jordan asked the Navy SEAL operator who was sitting a couple feet away from him.

"It was great, could've been better though," Craig Jenson said.

"What'd Ya mean by that?" Jordan asked.

"Well...We didn't have any beer to watch it with," The operators laughed at that remark. Six had banned alcohol within the base as a precaution. At any moment Rainbow could receive a call which may need the operators. It's really not a good idea to send drunk operators on missions.

"Well yeah there's that," Erik agreed.

"One of these days, let's head out and protest beer back," Craig said.

"Heh, yeah."

Mike just stood there, if he's sure about one thing, then that's the fact that he'll never understand the Americans. Why the hell do they call it football, they barely ever kick it? After regaining his composure, he spoke up.

"Hey, Erik, Jordan!" He called out.

"Yeah?" Both operators said in unison.

"Six's calling for the both of you. Do you guys know where Meghan is?" Mike said.

"Probably swimming. Just let us clean up here and we'll get to it," Jordan said.

"Alright, thanks," Mike was about to turn to leave but he saw a hint of green hair coming out of the laundry room cross his peripherals. He could hear the ear-pounding music coming from her headphones.

"Hey, Elzbieta! Six wants you in her office" Mike called out. She continued without even looking at him. Mike immediately walked up to her and pulled off her headphones. She quickly turned to get her property back but Mike was able to back off just in time before she could grab it.

"Give me back my headset!" Ela yelled at him annoyed.

"No, did you hear me?" Mike said.

"Yes! I heard you, grandpa!" Ela retorted in her thick Polish accent.

"Then acknowledge me when I address you!"

Ela swiftly took back her headset and put it on, unpausing her music. She picked up the laundry basket she was carrying before continuing. She muttered something in polish before slamming the door behind her. The operators behind Mike all but snickered at the event.

"I gotta say, Ela is probably the most fun person in Rainbow," Erik said behind him.

"Shut it, and get to Six's office," Mike ordered and turned away. Mike didn't really care, he only wondered why he'd always sucked when it comes to addressing women. Mike pushed it out of his mind and continued. He headed over to the base's Olympic size swimming pool adjacent to the gym. He immediately noticed a figure propelling through the water.

"Hey, Meghan!" Mike called out. Meghan was just coming up to his end of the pool when she noticed him.

"Hi, Mike, what's up?" Meghan asked.

"Six is asking for you to her office, she wants to talk to you and a bunch of other guys," Mike said.

"Okay then, give me a couple minutes," Meghan said. She lifted herself from the pool and grabbed a towel that was on the chair beside the pool.

"Hey, do you know where Taina is?" Mike asked her.

"Gym probably," Meghan said before hurrying to the women's locker.

Mike then headed for the gym. Once he entered, he gave a good scan of the area. He saw his friend and fellow SAS operative Seamus Cowden doing bench presses, Mike gave him a friendly nod and he returned the gesture. Mike also noticed all the GSG-9 operators concentrated at the gyms boxing ring, two seem to be engaged in a fight while the other two were just spectating. He then noticed Taina, doing yoga while listening to some music on her headset. Mike then approached her, carefully. He began by clearing his throat. Taina slowly looked up at him.

"Taina, Six called for you to her office, she says it's urgent," Mike said. There was a brief moment of silence before Taina stood up.

"Let me collect myself first, then I'll come up," She plainly said while picking up her stuff.

"Of course, just please make it quick," Mike said, and quickly regretted he said that. Taina didn't assault him, but she did give him a glare which stretched to his soul. Mike stood his ground and Taina eventually left, confident she had won the staring contest. She left the gym without even making a single sound as she did so.

Mike took a deep breath to regain his composure. That one was hard, but unfortunately, it wasn't going to be the hardest one. There was one more operator he needed to address. The last operator didn't need asking to be found, he already knew where he was. Mike turned to head out to the chapel. Olivier and Mike were never in the best of terms, mostly because of that one time Mike had punched him during a training exercise because he said the wrong thing. He entered the chapel, he dipped his fingers in the holy water before doing the sign of the Cross. He continued onwards and saw Olivier knelt down on the front pews, praying. Mike sat down next to him and waited for him to finish his prayer. Olivier did the sign of the Cross before sitting up straight.

"What do you want, Mike?" Olivier asked Mike sternly in his thick French accent.

"Six is calling for you and a bunch of others to her office, a mission probably," Mike said.

"Okay then," Olivier said before leaving.

Mike prayed too, and then he left to head back to Six's office.

After a couple minutes of walking, Mike arrived at Six's office. Most of the other operators were already there, it was only him and another person.

"Hello Mike, where's Ela?" Six asked.

"I thought she already got here," Mike replied.

Just as he said that the door opened and came through, Ela in her usual combat uniform.

"You're late Ela," Six told her with much seriousness in her voice.

"Sorry Director, I was caught up with a few things back there," she said. There were boundaries where Ela can never yell past.

"Save it for later, please take a seat."

Ela did as asked from her, with Mike following. Once they were comfortable, Six began.

"I've called all of you here today to inform you that you are all going to be sent on a very important mission overseas. It's a joint operation by both the CIA and MI6. Here's the mission file, see for yourselves," Six distributed copies of the mission file to each of the operators who studied them closely.

"Whoa," Erik said.

"Well shit," Meghan said.

"Syria huh? I never thought I'd go back to the Middle East after the Marines," Jordan said.

"Same here lad," Mike said.

"I didn't think so myself after getting out of the Unit. Looks like we're gonna be knocking on Mr. Jihadee's doorstep again devil dog," Erik said prompting Jordan to laugh.

"Mr. Jihadee, really?" Mike asked chuckling, "How do you Americans come up with this shit?"

"It all comes to you Mike, you just gotta accept it," Meghan said.

"Um, this isn't just Mr. Jihadee's doorstep," Olivier said making everyone look at him.

"This is Mr. Jihadee's and Mr. White Mask's doorstep, for your information" Ela continued for Olivier. Everyone was silenced at that remark.

All in all, everyone had a pretty neutral feeling about the mission and the place they were gonna be sent to.

"So, what's the plan?" Taina finally spoke up.

"Glad, you asked," Six sat straighter in her seat. "All of you will be sent into Syria to gather intel on the White Masks, who are allegedly trying to align themselves with various other terrorist groups in the area to expand essentially, and to destroy their main base of operations in the area which is situated somewhere within the vicinity of the city of Raqqa," Six explained. "Any questions?" Mike raised his hand. "Yes, Mike?"

"Exactly why are we gonna be the ones to be sent, Rainbow is not meant for something like this?" Mike asked.

"Rainbow has a lower profile than any other agency on earth, and the enemy knows that we're not meant for something like this, so they'd never expect it," Six explained, "Anything else?"

"Umm, last I checked the Masks were large enough already to be able to strike anywhere on the globe, why would they expand?" Erik asked.

"We don't know, that's why intel gathering is another part of the mission," Six said. "Any other questions?" There were none. "Alright, I'll fill you in with your roles now. Ela, Valkyrie, and Maverick would be gathering the intelligence. Caveira can serve as an interrogator and infiltrator. Thermite is in charge of demolition, and Lion would be the teams medic. And Thatcher would be squad lead. Now," Six straightened herself more to make her seem larger than anyone else in the room, "I know that each of you had some rough patches in the past. Olivier and Mike, I know the history between the both of you and I don't want to hear any excuses. Ela, your rebellious tendencies cannot be tolerated during this mission. The same goes for the rest of you, no funny business. The only way any of you are gonna accomplish this mission is through teamwork. Do I make myself clear?" Six said sternly.

"Yes ma'am," All of them said in unison.

"Very well. The transport leaves in two weeks, use that time to train and prepare. Dismissed." Everyone quickly filed out of the room. They all dispersed to go about their business, most likely to begin preparations for the mission. No one was really excited for the mission, especially Ela.

 **AN: Can ya'll do me a favor and just spam 'no homo' in the comment section.**


	4. Chapter 3: Preparations

**AN: Since I'm a piece of shit author, I think some of the character interactions I will write may sound gay, even if I don't intend it to be gay. So, please bear with me. Anyway, thanks for reading this fic, I guess.**

Location: Hereford Base, Herefordshire, England

Time: 14:30

Date: June 8, 2018

The operators had been enduring hell for the past week, they had spent a lot of their time in preparing for the mission. Due to the very time they had to prepare, they had to be pushed very hard. They were all given a crash course on Arabic, various tactics they were going to use on the mission, the layout of the city, cultures, and everything they needed to know to be able to face the enemy. Olivier was forced to be given additional medical training with Doc, and Ela had to learn how to assault a building. They've all been doing mock assaults on the enemy base and training on various gear they still weren't familiar with. The operators had all been drowned in a pool of stress with barely any time to breathe.

1 v 5

The operators were currently engaged in another training simulation. Four of the defending operators had already been eliminated since the past two minutes; the attacking force didn't even look like they had been hit once. It was up to Ela now to carry the round.

The combined stress and fatigue had taken a toll on her, and now she wasn't thinking clearly. But she could still remain effective. Ela had littered the halls with her mines, she was hiding in one of the closets trying to piece together a plan on her own. There were a few times before when she the only who was left, most of them did not end nicely for her.

 _Calm down Elzbieta, as long as Ryad's not in play, you should be fine,_ Ela told herself. "Scanning," Ela faintly heard down the hall. _do cholery,_ Ela thought again, "This can't possibly get any worse", Ela immediately regretted she said that.

"Running out of time Ela!" Ela heard over the distance. She checked her watch, five minutes more and the enemy wins by default. _What is my life?_

Ela decided to check the cameras, some of Valkyries cameras and the other cameras already present in the area should still be up. She didn't like what she saw. She saw five operators all of them with their weapons up, ready to kill. But they seemed to be playing passive, trying to look for her. This was their weakness. They've entered her home, now she just has to make sure they don't get out. Ela devised a plan, and quickly executed it, she exited the closet and ran straight to the objective room, making as much noise as possible. She gave the room a good look before turning to hide again. After about 30 seconds someone arrived in the room, it was Jackal. He was trying to find Ela, using his Eyenox to track her footsteps. He was circling the bomb, there were too many footsteps showing up confusing him. He didn't notice that Ela was taking aim. She fired a quick burst of rounds, Jackal was eliminated instantly.

1 v 4

Ela could hear more footsteps charging towards her position, by the sound of it, it was by two people. She caught the glimpse of a figure holding a shield charging towards her. Ela immediately turned around and left the room, taking cover behind a reinforced wall as the bullets sprayed her. Ela swapped her magazine and took out a small mirror from her pocket.

Blitz was taking point while thermite followed close behind with his rifle up.

"What do you think?" Blitz asked his fellow attacker.

"She's the only one left, let's clean it up already," Thermite replied.

"Alright then, on 3, 1...2..."

Ela could see them charging towards her. She smiled internally as it was what she wanted them to do. Ela retreated a little bit backward towards the doorframe and took cover. Blitz and Thermite exited the room hoping to finally get Ela but was met by one of her Grzmot mines that she had placed on top of the door frame. They were instantly concussed, a massive headache washed over them and their vision was blurred. They groaned in pain as they tried to maintain their balance. Ela jumped out of cover and finished them off with one nicely placed mag-dump. She was the one hunting now.

1 v 2

Ela was quickly turning the corners looking for the last two hostiles still present. When she turned another corner she was met by Ash who had her rifle up and ready to shoot. But Ela was too fast for her, and she was taken out by one swipe of Ela's wz. 98.

1 v 1

 _OPFOR, last operator remaining_

Ela was now looking for the last operator, she already knew who she was. Ela was maneuvering through the halls of the compound looking for her. Suddenly something bounced off the wall in front of her and landed in front of her, detonating and concussing her. Fortunately, Ela was able to resist much of the effects and grab an impact grenade which she threw at the wall next to her, giving her a way out. It took a couple more seconds before the rest of the effects to wear off, by that time Ela was underneath a hailstorm of lead. Then the shooting stopped, probably reloading. Ela took the advantage and returned fire, her SMG reaching its max rpm in under a second. Once her mag was empty, she advanced forward to a better position before reloading.

"You can't win Ela!" She heard Zofia say, "I always have the edge!"

"Getting on my nerves!" Ela retorted as she armed a Grzmot.

"This is so you!" Zofia added, "I taught you better than this!"

Ela rose up from cover and threw her mine followed by a storm of bullets. "I don't need you!"

Zofia also rose from cover and began to fire back with her rifle. "THIS MIGHT TEACH YOU SOMETHING!" She yelled as she unloaded her magazine. Ela was running now to try and dodge the bullets. She was able to reach a better position. "YOU CAN'T KEEP RUNNING, I WON'T PLAY NICE ELA! WHEN WILL YOU LEARN?" This set Ela off.

"IM NOT A LITTLE GIRL ANYMORE! WHEN WILL YOU REALIZE THAT?" She yelled and threw an impact grenade and proceeded to unload her magazine. Zofia was actually caught off guard and had to retreat a little bit, but she triggered a Grzmot mine which Ela threw earlier. She was immediately concussed, Zofia was as resistant to the concussion as Ela, needing only a small time to recover, but Ela only needed less time than that to gain the upper hand. Ela fired a burst of shots at Zofia's torso and she was put down. Zofia was bleeding and was struggling to get up. Her shades had fallen off and she could see clearly now. She saw a figure approach her, Ela had slung her Scorpion onto her shoulder and had her pistol drawn.

"Did you think it would be that easy _siostra?"_ Ela added. "Look at yourself now, this is embarrassing," Ela walked closer to her sister. "I know all your moves, take note of that. And take note of this as well," Ela raised her pistol towards Zofia's forehead, "I'm all grown up, Zo," Ela said before shooting her execution style.

 _OPFOR, all enemy operators eliminated, mission successful,_ Ela heard through her earpiece, _Simulation end._

A ring of a bell was heard, and Ela noticed that the other operators that have been taken out were already getting back up. Ela twirled her RG-15 before holstering it and sitting down on one of the chairs that were still intact. She removed her headset and cap and rubbed her face. She noticed Zofia getting up while rubbing off the red paintball from her forehead, she picked up her FB Beryl and KS79, she noticed Ela and they looked at each other. They both kept an emotionless face as they stared at each without saying a single word. Eventually, Zofia turned and picked up her shades before leaving. Ela didn't care, she just wanted to head back to her dorm and get some rest. She could hear cheering behind her, the other defenders who had just gotten were howling their lungs out in celebration of their victory as they made their way to Ela.

"Fuck yeah, that's what I'm talking about!" Castle yelled.

"Yeah, we showed them!" Valkyrie added.

"This calls for a celebration, pizza is on me!" Maestro said.

"Except you won't be making it, I still can't forget that feeling," Alibi said alongside.

"Whoa-ho-ho you're gonna be like that to me _tesoro?"_ Maestro said as he gave Alibi a nudge.

Alibi only smiled and nudged him back, "Whatever, let's just go."

Valkyrie trailed along when she noticed Ela leaving. "Hey Ela!" She called out to her. Ela looked up to Valkyrie, "You coming, Maestro said he's got pizza?"

"No, I gotta get back to my dorm," Ela said before continuing onward. Meghan could hear the downed feeling in her voice. She broke off from the group and followed after Ela.

"Hey, Valk!" She heard from behind her, "You coming or what?" Miles Campbell asked.

"I'll catch up Miles, just gotta do something real quick and don't eat all of it!" Meghan replied.

"You got it!" Castle said as he continued onwards towards the cafeteria.

Valkyrie ran down the hall to catch up her friend. She looked around but couldn't find Ela anywhere, she decided to head down to Ela's dorm and see if she's there. Meghan jogged over to Ela's dorm and knocked on her door.

"Who is it?" Was the reply Valkyrie received.

"It's me, Meghan, can I talk to you real quick?" Meghan asked.

"Come in," Ela replied.

Meghan opened the door and entered the room. Ela's room was a mess, there was stuff laying everywhere and everything was in disarray. Ela was sitting on the edge of her bed, she had one foot on the ground and the other on her bed, using her knee to support her elbow so she can rest her head on her right hand. Valkyrie walked up to Ela and sat down beside her.

"So, how're you feeling?" Meghan asked her.

"I'm fine," Ela plainly said.

Meghan raised an eyebrow, "Oh really?" Meghan said, "Cause you don't look fine to me."

"I'm fine Meghan, really," Ela said.

Meghan knew that this was a lie. "C'mon Ela, you know very well that I know that you're not fine."

Ela instantly stood up and faced her friend. If looks could kill, Meghan would've been very dead.

"I SAID THAT I'M FINE MEGHAN! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!" Ela snapped back.

"Hey, hey, calm down, I'm just worried about you okay," Meghan said trying to calm Ela down. Ela lowered her guard and sat back down, burying her face in her hands. Meghan started comforting her. "You can tell me anything you know. Best friends, right?" It took some time before Ela straightened out and spoke up.

"I-It's just, I feel really uneasy about this mission, like it's gonna go bad. And I can't get it out of my head," Ela told her. "I'm scared Meghan." Hearing this, Meghan wrapped herself around Ela. Although Orange Sky was a complete success, both Ela and Valkyrie had seen things and gone through things that even some of the strongest would struggle to comprehend. Ela was hit the hardest, facing death more than once, then followed by a constant stream of nightmares afterward.

"Hey don't be like that, don't be scared," Meghan told her. In all honesty, Meghan was scared shitless as well, they shared the same experiences after all. It's just her training as a Navy SEAL won't allow her to show weakness.

"Why?"

"Well, think about it, we succeeded the first time, I'm sure we'd succeed again," Meghan said.

"You think so?" Ela looked up to Meghan with eyes full of hope.

"Totally," Meghan said with a smile. Ela smiled back and hugged her friend.

"Thank you, Meghan!" Ela said. She then broke the hug and looked at her. "You know, you're like a sister to me. A better sister that is."

Meghan raised an eyebrow with a smile, "Oh really?"

Ela grinned, "Really," She said and they hugged again.

"Hey, do you still wanna come, I heard the pizza was pretty good?" Meghan asked her. Ela maintained her smile.

"Yeah, let's go, I'm starving actually," Ela got up and followed Valkyrie, closing the door behind them as they headed for the mess hall.

* * *

Ela and Valkyrie sat down with their fellow operators in the mess hall. They sat around a large 18-inch pepperoni pizza which the operators had already begun digging into. They were laughing and exchanging stories with one another.

"I did my part," Miles said as he took a bite from a slice of pizza.

"You locked most of us in the objective room, we had to blow the walls to get out only to get surrounded and wallbanged. It's a good thing Ela went to roam early," Valkyrie retorted.

"Correction, we weren't surrounded. Y'all could've gotten away. Meatball man and spaghetti girl over there stepped on a claymore," Miles said.

"Okay, we were being shot at, I had no time to look around!" Adriano retorted.

"Suit yourself, Valk here though got demolished," MIles said taking another bite.

"She friggin came out of nowhere!" Meghan retorted. "It's not my fault Eliza can run at Mach 3!"

"Hey!" Eliza said from the other side of the table. "I don't decide how fast I run, I just run."

"Oh my God," Meghan sighed.

"Moving on, this meal requires a toast," Adriano stood with his cup of tea in hand, "In light of our near loss due to our stupidity, it is only fair that we raise a glass or cup or whatever you are holding to Ela, for carrying us!"

"Aww, thank you guys," Ela beamed.

"That was amazing, you won against all odds," Meghan said.

"I know, I freaked out when I turned that corner and saw Ela, next thing I know I was out," Eliza said.

"I wasn't there but I saw it all on the live feed, you practically executed Zofia," Monika remarked, "Remind never to get on your bad side."

"Yeah, yeah whatever. She chickened into a closet though," Elias said.

"Hey fuck you, Elias!" Meghan said.

"Don't mind him, Ela, he's just salty he rushed into one of your mines," Monika said reassuringly.

"Ok," Ela said plainly. She didn't really care, one way or another, she still won.

"Alright, change of topic," Miles said after taking a swig of soda, "So, Monika do you anyone in your life?" He asked.

"What?" She asked confused by the question.

"Someone you, you know, someone special. Someone you would go fooling around with," Eliza said.

"Oh, in that case, then no. I'm too busy for that kind of relationship anyway. Besides, I've yet to meet someone who can even try to ask me out," Monika said eyeing Elias.

"Oh I can get any girl I want when I want too," Elias retorted.

"Oh please," Monika scoffed, "You, Marius, and Dominic can't even ask me straight."

"Hey!" Marius said from the other side of the room, "Leave me out of this!"

Monika just smiled to herself knowing she won this round. "What about you Ela?" Ela turned to Monika's direction.

"What?"

"Anyone in your life?" Monika asked her.

Ela shrugged, "No, but maybe soon enough," She said.

"Soon? Ha, with someone like you, you're right about that," Miles said. "Hell, you may even bypass your sister in a couple of years."

"Why do you hate Zofia anyway?" Monika asked.

Ela was caught off guard by the question, "I don't-" She stopped herself to prevent anything from slipping out, "I-I'm sorry, I can't talk about something like this, it's too personal."

"Oh, okay then," Monika said.

"Change of topic once again! Now, what should be the prize for the next sim?" Adriano asked.

"Drinks!" Elias suggested.

"You know Six banned alcohol, that's why I got this shitty cheap soda," Miles said.

"We head out to town then, losers will pay for gas as well!" Elias said.

"Okay, now you're asking for too much," Adriano said.

As the other operators argued over the prizes for their next training simulation, Ela couldn't help but think about what Monika asked her earlier. Someone special, one of the things that Ela envies from Zofia is the fact that she's married. Ela's not jealous about the husband, but the fact that Zofia has a husband, has a relationship and is happy about it. While she's still here, alone. Ela looked up to the ceiling and continued to drown herself in her own thoughts. _Soon._

* * *

It was 10 o'clock at night and Olivier Flament had just gotten out of a training simulation and was heading back to his dorm. Recently he had used his V308 assault rifle a lot less to sharpen his marksmanship on his HK417 DMR. His shot was still not the best, but he's working on it.

He should be getting to bed real soon so he could re-energize for more preparations tomorrow, but he had one more errand to run. Once he got back to his dorm he changed out of his uniform and got into more comfortable clothing, then he took his EE-ONE-D drone, and left his room to Twitch's room.

It was a short walk to Twitch's room, once he got there he gave the door a knock and waited for a reply.

"Who is it?" A voice asked from the other side of the door.

"It's me, Olivier, can I talk to you for a second?" Olivier asked.

"The door's open, come in," Emmanuelle replied. Olivier twisted the doorknob and entered the room. Emmanuelle was at her desk repairing her drone. She turned her chair to face him.

"What can I do for you Olivier?" She asked.

"Well, as you've heard I'm gonna be deployed overseas, and I was just wondering if you could give my drone some modifications," He explained pointing at the large case he was carrying. The drone was big and it had to be dismantled everytime it had to be carried around.

"Okay, what exactly do you me to do with it?" She asked.

"Well, I was thinking maybe add more modes into it, give it a normal camera and a thermal one, turn it into a surveillance drone because of the larger areas," Olivier explained.

Twitch took a moment to think about it, "Hmm, okay, I think I can come up with something," she said.

"Thanks," He said with a slight smile. Twitch could sense that something was off.

"Are you ok?" She asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," He replied, "Why do you ask?"

"You don't sound fine," She said crossing her arms.

Olivier sighed, "It's just, I don't know ok," He set down the case and sat on the sofa, "I don't know if it's the stress or fatigue from the upcoming mission or the fact I'm scared. But I'm pushing myself because I'm scared I'd let the team down. I'm scared I'd screw up again. Mike, he's an asshole, but yet I worry for him, and for everyone else, I'm going with." He explained.

Emmanuelle felt sorry for him, she stood up and sat down next to him to comfort him. "Hey, don't be scared I'm sure you guys would be just fine. Six would make sure you return home anyway."

"Huh, okay thanks for that too Emma," He said with a smile.

"Also, I've noticed that you've been more distant to us recently. I don't wanna see that anymore. If you have any more problems, talk to us. I, Gilles, and even Gustave are here for you," she said.

Olivier was taken back by this, "Wow, umm, thank you so much," He said.

" _De rien_ ," She replied, "Just don't distance yourself any longer."

"I'll take note of that," He said before they both stood up. Olivier said one last thank you before giving Emanuelle a friendly hug and exiting the room.

That talk was what Olivier needed to get back on track. As he was walking down the hall, he noticed Gustave trying to open the door of his room while carrying a stack of boxes full of medicine. Olivier decided he was gonna be good and help out the Doc.

"Here, let me get that for you," He said as he took the boxes. Gustave was relieved at first but shocked at the next moment, he didn't think that Olivier of all people would him out. Gustave unlocked the door and open it, he entered and Olivier.

"Where do you want this?" Olivier asked referring to the boxes.

"Uhh, just put it over the table over there," Gustave said pointing at the table.

Olivier put the boxes on the table and headed out to leave.

"Hey Olivier," He heard Gustave's voice call out from behind him and turned to him, "Thanks for the help."

"No problem," He said. But before Gustave can close the door, Olivier stopped him, "Hey Doc."

"What?"

"Umm, this is already overdue and now may not be the best time, but I'm sorry. For everything," He said in a soft voice.

This actually made Gustave smile, "Apologies are never overdue _mon amie_ , and now's a pretty good time. So I accept it," He said.

"So we're good then?"

"Yup."

They both shook hands and parted ways.

* * *

About four days have passed since the simulation, the operators who are going to be deployed now only have three days left for preparations. The stress didn't seem to go away only get worse as the days go by. But today was an exception, the operators were allowed to cool down and do whatever they want for the whole day. Some took advantage of the time and slacked off to cool down while some continued to train.

All four SAS operators of Rainbow were currently in the common room. Seamus and James were discussing something while drinking some tea, while Mark was just lying on the couch playing video games on the PS4 that is connected to the TV. The video game he was playing, _Rainbow 6: Siege,_ closely resembled Team Rainbow, being a CTU operator. In fact, the character he was playing closely resembled himself, which is awesome but at the same time creepy.

Thatcher or Mike was at the farthest end of the room, on the phone. The operators heard that it was his wife that Mike was talking to, and from the looks of it, it's not going well at all. After about a good couple minutes, Mike put his phone back in his pocket and walked over to his friends.

"So, how's the wife Mike?" James asked.

Mike sighed and took a seat, "She's beyond pissed, had to cancel a lot of stuff so I understand," Mike said. "I still gotta go though, as much as I want to, I can't dodge my responsibilities," Mike paused, "Even if it means dodging other responsibilities," Mike buried his face in his hands, "Fuck, what's gone into me?"

"Cheer up mate, she'll cool down eventually. Besides, it's not like you'll be gone forever, just go in, do your job, and get out, and once you're done you can request a temporary leave for a couple months from Six," Seamus said.

"Yeah, you need to quit drowning yourself in the negative shit, and think about the positive ones," James said. "Lighten up, it's not good for you, fucks up your brain, then you're as good as dead.

"Well, what do you suggest I do then?" Mike asked.

James thought about the question for a second, "You can try distracting yourself with other things. You can't really escape your problems, but at least you can keep your mind clear until you can deal with it."

"Yeah, I mean, look at Mark," Seamus said pointing at the couch, "He doesn't give a damn about anything."

The three approached the couch and looked down on Mark. He was still lying on the couch playing the game.

"Hey Mark, how's the uh, game going?" Seamus asked referring to the video game he was playing.

"Good," Mark plainly said. He had recently gotten into a new match and picked a different character, but things escalated quickly and it wa situation already. But Mark was relatively calm and remained in his current position. The three operators behind him didn't understand the game at all.

"How do you young people even find this fun. In my time I'd always be outside with friends," Mike said.

Mark heard this and formed a response, "Well, with all due respect Mike, but that was during your time," Mark said plainly and continued with his game. This sparked laughter among the other operators, excluding Mike though. Mark doesn't talk much and this was one of the few times he actually did, but it didn't Mike that he could bring down the hammer like that.

Mark could see movement behind a stack of boxes. He pressed down left trigger first before pressing down right trigger and pre-firing his target.

 _OPFOR, all enemy operators eliminated, mission successful_

"Ouch," Mark remarked, "I just killed my sister."

"Well that was fun to watch," James said, "Wanna go grab something to eat?"

"Yeah, sure," Mike said.

"Me too," Seamus said.

"Okay," Mark said, "Just give me a second."

Mark got up from the sofa and walked over to the PS4. He took out the disc and put it back in its case before following his friends.

* * *

It was dark out already. Ela and the operators were already heading to bed and recharge some more to resume preparations tomorrow. Ela had already laid down on her bed but she can't get herself to sleep, she can't shake the feeling that the mission was gonna go bad somehow and that it would be her fault.

Bullshit. She had full confidence in herself and her team to succeed in their mission against a bunch of psychos with guns, wearing silly cheap white masks.

Ela had decided to get up and do something to help her get to sleep. She scanned her room for anything she could use to distract herself with. She saw her Scorpion Evo 3 hanging by its sling on the wall adjacent to her. Gun range perhaps? No, it would probably already be closed at this time of the night. She gave her room another good scan, she saw a small bag in the corner and decided to grab it. Inside was a sketch pad along with a set of expensive-looking colored pencils. Those were from her days as a fine arts student, it was short-lived but fruitful, back then she could draw pretty much anything with full detail. Now, she wasn't so sure, it'd been a long time since she drew anything, maybe even too long. Time to find out.

She got up, put on her shoes, and grabbed the bag with the sketch pad and colored pencils. She also grabbed a jacket to put over her white shirt to defend against the cold weather.

Ela had scoured the base in search for something to draw. She was surprised to see a few operators still awake at this time at night. She saw Mark who was drinking some coffee, she saw Taina grabbing a water bottle, and she even saw Zofia, who was just at some random dark corner, sitting there staring blankly into nothing, she didn't even move her eyes to look at Ela despite her walking in front of her. It was weird, but Ela dismissed it and continued. It was nighttime, so everything was dark. Well, there wasn't anything really interesting around here during the daytime as well, maybe that was a custom to the bleak nature of the modern day UK.

 _Except,_ Ela climbed a flight of stairs to the top of the dormitory compound. The top was nice, it acted as another common area or viewing area with chairs, tables, and such. She could see everything from up here, from the entirety of the base to the vast English countryside. She, of course, can't see the countryside but that's not what she wanted to draw. Instead, she lifted up her head and looked at the sky. It was very rare times that there was a clear sky over the UK. And it was beautiful, the stars were out and the moon was high. There was even the cluster of stars which outlined the milky way galaxy. She took the opportunity, sat down, and began to draw.

About an hour has passed and she had finished her drawing. The skill showed no sign degradation. The drawing can almost be considered as a photograph of what she saw. There was the starry night sky with the outline of the milky way, and the dark outline of the hills and distant lights of the English countryside drawn into a picture. Ela was proud at what she just made, she packed up her stuff and left with a smile on her face. Once she arrived back at her dorm, she was finally able to sleep easy.

* * *

 **AN: I hope you guys liked it despite the poor attempt. Next chapter is the mission already.**

 **Oh yeah, you guys know that the Scorpion Evo 3 has two variants. The A1 which is the SMG variant with the three fire modes (semi-auto, burst, and full-auto), and the S1 variant which is just a boring semi-auto only pistol-carbine. Now we all know that Ela uses the A1 SMG variant, but why does it have the 16.2-inch barrel that's only available to the S1 variant? To the best of my knowledge at least, the 16.2-inch barrel is not available for the A1 SMG, I've been searching the internet for some time already and I could not find an A1 with the 16.2-inch barrel. I thought I found one a day ago, but it turned out to be a stupid airsoft replica. Maybe you guys know if there's one with that barrel.**


	5. Chapter 4: Welcome to paradise!

**AN: All I'm gonna say is: Prepare for shitty attempts in British dialogue. Go check out reactiverainbow over at since I don't want to look like I'm stealing content.**

Location: Aleppo International Airport, Syria

Time: 12:10

Date: June 15, 2018

The Boeing C-17 Globemaster III touched down at Aleppo international airport at about past noon. It taxied over to the apron and powered down its engines, then the huge bay doors at the rear of the aircraft lowered and people started disembarking. The people who came out of the aircraft were mostly US marine infantrymen being deployed, the marines all disembarked the aircraft and filed into a formation for a headcount and to be loaded into trucks heading to the FOB. But there were seven people who stood out of place, four men and three women disembarked the aircraft as well not wearing military uniforms. If it weren't for the fact that they were carrying weapons on them, they would've been mistaken for tourists.

The scorching Syrian heat was immediately felt by the seven Team Rainbow operators. Each one of them was currently wearing clothes that were ideal for the weather and environment, coupled with a pair of shades each as well.

Erik Thorn took a deep breath and exhaled, "Welcome to paradise, ladies, and gentlemen!"

"You're bloody right there mate," Mike Baker said, "Alright, everyone to customs first, then we go find Spectre,"

"None of you forgot your passports right?" Meghan asked. Everyone just shook their heads in response to her statement, "Good," They continued into the airport terminal.

They managed to pass through customs without a problem and went to the other side. There were vendors who lined the walls with their shops, there were the two Syrian soldiers with AKM assault rifles in hand, standing guard at the front of the airport, there was the sound of multiple people conversing in Arabic, all of the usual stuff you would see in a place like this.

"Any sign of Spectre?" Mike asked.

"Nope," Erik said

"Nie," Ela said.

"Não," Taina said.

"Are you sure we're in the right place?" Olivier asked looking around.

"Yup, here is exactly where the file said he'd be at," Meghan replied

"Did they even give us a picture of him?" Jordan asked.

"Naw, the file did say that he'll be the one to find us, not the other way around," Erik replied.

"You think this guy would be a no-show?" Jordan asked his friend.

"Nah man, I know these types of intelligence elements really well, he's around here somewhere, probably making sure that it's really us he's looking at," Erik explained. He was a former intelligence officer after all.

Another couple minutes and still nothing happened. They were starting to feel awkward by just standing there.

"Let's try splitting up, give this guy a better look at us if he's even here," Ela suggested, emphasizing the last part.

"I agree with her, I'm starting to feel awkward here," Olivier remarked. The other operators gave nods of agreement.

"Fine, everyone spread out, but don't go too far and if you see anything, report back to me," Mike said, and everyone just agreed. They split up and began looking for this Spectre guy.

Ela had put a good amount of distance between her and the others before something suddenly caught her which made her gasp. Someone came from behind her and put an arm around her. The man wore black shades, a brown jacket with a white shirt underneath, tan khakis, and a pair of military grade boots. His hair was short and his beard was well trimmed.

"Act normally," The man said in Arabic, his voice was gruff and stern. Ela could feel the end of something hard point into her back. She put on a fake smile and played along with it. The man laughed and smiled as he held onto her. They both looked like a normal couple to everyone around them, which was good as neither of them wanted to attract any unwanted attention.

"Is that a gun you're poking into my back or are you just excited to see me?" Ela asked in Arabic. It wasn't the best and there was an accent, but it was understandable.

The man grinned and chuckled a bit before holstering the pistol. "It's not safe for women to walk alone in a place like this," He said, in English this time, his British accent was very noticeable. "Now, what's a pretty woman like you doing in a place like this?" He asked.

"Oh I don't know, now, is it a custom for gentlemen to point pistols at pretty women, Spectre?" Ela asked him in English.

"Where's the rest of you, aren't you guys supposed to be a team?" He asked. Before Ela could reply, Spectre was taken off him and was pinned to the ground by the larger frame of Lion.

"There they are," Ela said.

"It's not nice to randomly grab onto women you know," Olivier said as he kept the man's armed twisted to keep him from moving.

"Aw, bloody hell, someone get this guy off of me!" Spectre said as he tried to suck in the pain. The rest of the team gathered around them, most of them thinking to themselves, _Is this really Spectre?_ Olivier eventually let go of his grip onto the man and he straightened up.

"Right, so you guys must be the clowns HQ said would be coming over?" Spectre asked wincing from the pain as he rubbed his shoulder to ease it out a bit.

"I suppose so," Mike replied.

Spectre smiled, "Jolly good then, let's skip the introductions for now and get going," Spectre said, and they got going. They walked over to the parking lot, and Spectre approached what appeared to be an old orange Volkswagen bus and opened the driver side door.

"What is, that?" Taina asked eyeing their ride.

"Hey," Spectre called out to her, "Judge not my baby, I've put a lot of effort into stealing her for you guys," Spectre said as he entered the vehicle. "Now come on, I don't wanna drive down the highway when it's dark, fighters would be crawling the area, waiting to ambush us."

The operators dismissed his other remark and quickly followed into the vehicle. They put their stuff in the back and began to enter the vehicle.

"Wait," Spectre said and faced them, "Who has the best eyesight among all of you?"

"I can see pretty well," Erik said.

"Good, can you ride please ride shotgun, I need a lookout." Erik nodded and walked over to the front.

"What do I need to be watching out for?" He asked as he closed the door.

"IEDs mate, IEDs. They're everywhere, almost ran into one myself as I was driving here," Spectre said and started the engine. After a minute or so they were on the road heading east towards Raqqa.

"I didn't get your names," Spectre said as he drove the van. The operators were silent for a moment before introducing themselves one by one.

"You can call me Maverick."

"Thatcher."

"Lion."

"Thermite."

"Valkyrie."

"Caveira."  
"Ela."

Spectre smiled, "Good to meet all of ya, you can call me Spectre - you already knew that - and I'll be your tour guide for the rest of your time here," He said.

"What was that for?" Thatcher asked.

"What was what for?" Spectre asked confused.

"The thing at the airport," Ela said.

"I got one word," Spectre lifted up his right index finger, "Insurance."

"What the hell do you mean insurance, did you think we were fakes?" Caveira asked.

"I wasn't sent a picture of any of you, and the bloody Masks have operatives that can work undercover. I think I screwed something up during an op I ran a week ago, and they'd probably be looking for me. You guys couldn't have expected me to hold up a sign that read: 'Team Rainbow over here', did you?" The last part was more of a statement than a question. The explanation was sound and the operators couldn't argue about it, so they decided to just keep their mouth shut.

* * *

About half an hour has passed, and they were still on the road. Traffic was minimal so they had a high chance of arriving on their destination just in time. As they were advancing across the highway, one thing they were a line of Syrian T-72 Main Battle Tanks. The tanks were firing over at a bunch of buildings at the distance. Spectre could see the operators start to tense up from the rearview mirror.

"Don't worry about it. Those are friendly Syrian Army T-72s, probably providing fire support for advancing troops," Spectre explained. The operators calmed down. The thunder from the main 125mm smoothbore cannon of the T-72s shook the vehicle a bit.

After driving for another five minutes, something caught Spectre's eye. "Look!" He pointed, the operators looked around for what he was trying to point at, "Ten o'clock low, two, close-formation, fast-movers!" He called out. The operators quickly looked at that direction. There were two figures over the distance that were headed towards them.

"Warthogs," Erik said.

About ten seconds after he said that, two USAF A-10 Thunderbolt IIs zoomed above them, shaking it with its loud engines. The operators looked behind them, and the area with the building was obliterated by bombs from the aircraft.

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how its done," Spectre said.

* * *

An hour later as they were driving down the highway, Maverick was scanning the area up ahead with a pair of binoculars, earlier he was given a map of where there was frequent traffic by military forces, Syrian, American, and the likes. He found out that the highway they were driving on was frequented by the US military. As he scanned the area up ahead, something caught his eye.

"Spectre stop," He ordered. Spectre knew what was up and obeyed his command. "There's a car parked on the shoulder, 250 feet up ahead," Maverick pointed out and handed him the binoculars. The operators, some of which woke up from their sleep, noticed the vehicle stop.

"What's happening?" Mike asked.

"Um, ladies and gentlemen, we have a potential VBIED right in front of us," Spectre said. Everyone tensed up, especially Ela since she used to work counter IED ops. VBIED stands for Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device, and since its vehicle-borne the bomb it carried usually has a bigger boom in it.

Spectre gave a good scan of the surrounding area, he noticed all of the rocks, mounds, and bushes that were around, it made the surrounding area a perfect ambush site. After a minute or so, he and the operators began to discuss their options.

"Why not just take another route, go around it?" Mike suggested.

"This is the only straight route to Raqqa if we turn around it would take us more than a day to get there, and I don't have that much gas," Spectre said.

"Can we send someone to investigate?" Thermite asked.

"Maybe, but if that is a bomb then whoever put it there might still be around here with a remote detonator, and he could have friends as well," Spectre said.

"Yeah, and it's too risky to assume it's not a bomb, especially around here. Besides, it could be bait as well just to get us to come closer," Maverick added.

They all contemplated on what to do, but their options were still very limited.

"Someone has to go, it's the best and safest way," Spectre said, "But don't worry, I'll do it."

"You can't go alone, it's still too risky," Maverick said.

Ela was taking all of this is in, and decided to do it, "I'll go," She said and got her case that had her Scorpion inside.

"Are you sure about this Ela?" Valkyrie asked.

"I used to work on Counter-IED operations, I got this," She said as she loaded a magazine into her SMG.

"Right then, I'll follow you out," Spectre said. He opened the door and got out, and took out an FMG-9 that was strapped to the side of the door, and unfolded it. "Hey Maverick," He looked at him, "In case anything happens, you guys get the hell away from here," He said.

Maverick hesitated at the question but came out with a reply, "Ok," He said and got into the driver's seat.

Ela and Spectre assembled at the front of the vehicle and readied their weapons.

"Ok, check comms," Spectre said and turned on his radio, "Can you guys hear me?"

"Loud and clear Spectre," Maverick said.

"Okay, you good Ela?" He asked her.

"Yeah, let's go!" She said and they began approaching the car.

After about a couple of minutes, they reached the car. It didn't appear to be running and they couldn't see anyone inside.

"Watch out for any threats," Spectre said. Ela nodded and began to watch out for anything that looked suspicious while Spectre got on the ground to check the bottom of the car. He gave it a good scan but found nothing, "There's nothing weird down here, maybe it's inside," He said as he got up, the windows weren't tinted so they could clearly see the interior, but when Spectre went for the door it surprisingly opened, meaning the vehicle was unlocked.

"You wanna check the trunk?" He asked.

"Sure," She said. They went to the back and opened it. There was nothing besides the usual stuff you'd find in a car's trunk. Spectre then closed it and radioed back to the van.

"All clear, come pick us up," He said.

"Wilco," Maverick replied.

Back at the van, Maverick was about to start it while Olivier continued to look out for any threats. He looked to the area at the left of the road when he saw what appeared to be a bush that was rustling.

"Ela, Spectre! Movement in a bush at your ten o'clock!" He called out. Before their minds could register what Lion told them, someone came out of the bushes with an AK-47. And before Ela could react, Spectre had already shot the insurgent in the head. Then more came out charging after them, Ela and Spectre took cover behind the car, and a firefight erupted. Ela and Spectre fired back with their respective weapons. Seconds seemed like hours as Ela had already burned three magazines, proving the might of her trusty Scorpion. It wasn't long for the others to arrive and support them. They were able to fend off and kill the attackers.

"Oh my God," Thatcher said. What laid in the grass in front of him were ten to fifteen men, their weapons still on their hands. They didn't stand a chance.

Olivier took out a rosary from his pocket, "Je vous salue, Marie pleine de grâce..." He began to pray.

"What do we do with the bodies?" Caveira asked.

"Well, we don't have the time nor the equipment to clean this up. I say we leave this as it is," Spectre suggested.

"Oh, now that's just fucked up!" Valkyrie said. Spectre then faced her.

"Oh I'm sorry about this mess, but If you want to clean it up, then be my guest!" Spectre retorted. The operators all began to argue, only Thatcher and Ela didn't say anything. Thatcher was looking at the scene in front of him. Meghan was right, it is fucked up, it looked like a massacre because it was. But Spectre himself had a point too, they were not in a position to begin picking up bodies and burying them. Thatcher thought about it for a moment and made a decision. He then proceeded to face the group that was still arguing.

"ALL OF YOU, THAT'S ENOUGH!" He made sure that his voice was heard by everyone. The group stopped and looked at him. "Look, I know what all of this looks like to you. It's not the first time I've seen a scene such as this, so I know. But I also know that, no matter how fucked up it looks like, Spectre is right, there's nothing we can do about it," He explained. The operators took it all in and understood.

"So, what do you suggest we do?" Olivier asked.

"Well, as I said, there's we can do, besides get back in the van and keep going," Thatcher said. The operators already knew it, of course, they just couldn't get themselves to accept it at first. It was just so wrong. They just said some things under their breath and headed over to the van. But one operator stood still. Ela had not moved from her spot overlooking the dead bodies since the end of the firefight. It was a hell of a lot for her to take in. She's only seen a sight like this a couple times before. One time was when she was still a PMC in Iraq, and the other time was during Orange Sky.

"Hey Ela!" Valkyrie called out to her which took her out of her trance.

"Huh, what?" She said looking around confused.

"You coming or what?"

Ela looked at the sight behind for a second more, "Yeah, I'm coming," Ela picked herself up, and headed over to the vehicle.

"Come on now, the last thing I want to happen is for all of us to get blown up by an American patrol," Spectre said as he got back in the driver seat. The operators ignored his statement and went about their business. The Volkswagen bus was silent again as it was earlier, some of the operators began to doze off again while some just looked out to the Syrian landscape.

* * *

 _We got this! Do we got this? The Masks are advancing, we gotta retreat! Bomb is still active! It doesn't matter, this was a loss from the beginning anyway..._ Ela felt herself coming out of unconsciousness, she had taken multiple hits in the body. She could see the defuser right in front of her. She mustered all the strength in her body and crawled over to it. She opened it up and the display lit up.

 _Do you wish to abort?_

 _|Yes| |No|_

She weakly moved her finger to the keys. She selected the Yes option and pressed enter.

 _Loading...ERROR DETECTED, ABORT DENIED! REBOOT REQUIRED!_

"WHAT? NOOO!" Ela tried desperately to defuse the bomb. She tried to reboot the system, but she was severely weakened due to the blood loss. She could feel her hands starting to go limp before she could press the keys to reboot the defuser. "No, no, I-I can't fail," She told herself. She knew that whatever she did was futile, but she can't get herself to accept it.

"Forget it, Ela, you failed already," She heard above her. Ela was able to roll over a little bit to see that all of her friends were right there looking at her.

"I...I...I ca..." Ela tried to say.

"Look at her, how pathetic, she can't even talk straight," Eliza said.

"ca...ca..."

"I knew you would be a disappointment from the start," Six said.

"ca...can."

"Stop trying already, you're horrible as you are, already," Monika told her.

"sssssti...sti..."

"Oh, Ela. You should've just accepted that I was better," Zofia said. Her words pierced her like a sword.

"I can still...I can still," Ela felt tears starting to stream from her eyes.

"Just quit it already. Come on everyone, we don't have to waste our time here anymore," Meghan said. All of Team Rainbow, her family, began to file out of the room, leaving her behind.

"Sir, over here, Ela's here!" Someone else called out.

"Sergeant secure the bomb," Another man ordered.

"I...can...still...do..."

Someone then approached her and kneeled down to her, and faced her. He wore full black military gear, and his face was covered by a balaclava. He wore a beret which had the Polish eagle sewn onto it, he even had the Polish flag sewn onto his left shoulder. More men came in but they seem to pay any attention to her or the mysterious man. One of them ran up to the defuser and knelt down onto it.

"It's too late," The man on the defuser grimly said.

"It's not over yet," He said in his old gruff voice.

 _5..4..3...2..._

There was a loud bang for only a split second, and everything became very bright.

*BEEP!* *BEEP!*

Ela was awoken by the sound of the horn of Volkswagen bus. She scanned her surroundings, they were stuck in traffic with lots of people walking around carrying all sorts of stuff.

"Move it for fuck's sake!" Spectre cursed as he continued to honk the horn, "It's bloody England all over again!"

"Tell me about it," Thatcher said as he got comfortable in his seat.

"Where are we?" Ela asked.

"We've just arrived at Raqqa, but now the damn traffic has clogged up," Maverick said from in front. Ela slumped back in her seat and buried her face in her hands. It was just a dream, thank God, but yet it felt so real.

"You okay?" Valkyrie asked from beside her.

"Huh? Yeah, just a bad dream. Don't worry about it," She said.

Valkyrie raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure, don't you want to talk about it?" She asked, unconvinced.

"Yup, it's just a dream, no harm done," Ela replied.

"Okay then," Valkyrie reluctantly said. She knew her best friend too well to know that something was up, but she decided to leave it.

* * *

About thirty minutes later they were finally able to escape the traffic jam. They drove across the city towards their safehouse. Friendly Syrian and American troops were already present in the area, but they have not yet fully retaken the city. Still, life continued as usual for most of the inhabitants, especially on the side where it was occupied by friendly forces.

Spectre drove down the road until he stopped next to a small two-story building.

"Well, this is it," Spectre said as he pulled the parking brake and the keys from the ignition before stepping out. The operators followed him out and grabbed their stuff before following him into the building. There was a small dining area next to a kitchen, a living area where there was a table in the middle, and there were stairs going up in between the two areas. "Alright, welcome everyone, to my flat. The bunks are upstairs, there's breakfast and coffee every morning at 7 am lunch every noon, and dinner every 7 pm. Armory and mission coordination is upstairs as well. Oh yeah, there's only one bathroom, and it's downstairs. And one quick reminder, please do not clog the loo," He told all of them, "Okay, I'll give you guys the rest of the day to settle down, and tomorrow we'll begin operations."

"Okay, thanks for helping us out Spectre," Thatcher said as he extended his hand for a handshake.

"No problem, mate," Spectre took his hand and shook it. Afterward, they parted and went their separate ways. The operators went upstairs to the bunks, there was a short hallway that connected the five rooms that were upstairs. There were three bunkrooms, three beds in the first room, four in the second, and only one in the last, that would be Spectre's private room. The staircase was located in between two other rooms. The room on the left was the armory, and the one on the right was the mission room. The operators first went over to the bunks.

"It's not five star, but it'll do," Thermite said.

"I expected worse, honestly," Lion said.

"Okay, the girls stick with each other, and the guys, the same," Thatcher said and they all proceeded to their designated areas.

"Oh hell yeah, I call top bunk!" Valkyrie excitedly said as she ran up and climbed to the top.

"I'm taking the one on the right," Caveira said as she set her stuff down on the bed.

"I'll take bottom bunk then," Ela said as she sat down on the bed.

The operators took their time in unpacking their belongings and settling down. They put their weapons in the armory and set up the mission stuff at the mission room. The armory didn't have that many weapons in it, but it did have about two of each class of weapon, there was even an RPG in the corner. The mission room had two computers After that they all had dinner.

"So what's the situation here in Raqqa?" Thatcher asked.

"Well, it's still shitshow most definitely, but it's starting to get better. ISIS has lost pretty half of the city as the months past. The Americans are pushing in from the west, but insurgent elements are still scattered around the area, and if the White Masks are here, it's not gonna be good," Spectre explained.

"What do you think they'll do?" Valkyrie asked.

"Well, the usual stuff, bombings, shootings, harassing the friendly forces to slow them down until they can secure a stronghold and push them out," Spectre said.

"Shit," Thermite remarked.

"Mhmm, if they manage to create a stronghold here, then they just might be able to take the whole of Syria. And you can imagine what happens from there."

"The White Masks existing in general is already bad enough, I can't imagine what it'd be like if those _filhos da puta_ goes big game," Caveira said.

"Yup, but now since you guys are here, we may be able to shutdown those White Mask cunts once and for all," Spectre added, "I even heard radio chatter a few days ago that special forces were in the area."

This caught the attention of Valkyrie, "Special forces? Like, Navy SEALs, or Rangers?" She asked intrigued.

"Yeah, and I don't think it's just American SpecOps," Spectre said. This caught the attention of the other operators.

"What do you mean?" Jordan asked.

"Well, first I don't know if any of this is true, but according to the radio broadcast I intercepted I heard, GROM, SEAL, SAS, KSK, Spetznaz, SAF. I think I even heard North Korean somewhere along there, but I can't confirm nor deny that, the message was very grainy and I was exhausted at the time. Hell, the whole thing may just be false information."

This intrigued the operators, the presence of SpecOps operatives in the area was a promising sight, perhaps they could make their jobs a little easier for them. But it could also be bad for them, Rainbow may know that SpecOps are here but SpecOps doesn't know that Rainbow is here, so if they encounter each other and mistake each other for hostiles, it's gonna go bad. Valkyrie is a SEAL herself, and she's not prepared to go toe to toe with her fellow SEALs, same with the others, none of them want to engage against SpecOps operatives and are praying that never do.

The operators finished their meal and headed up to bed. They did their nightly routine before heading to bed to prepare for tomorrow and the days that follow.

Little do the operators know that the course of their mission will change their lives, the lives of others, and even the future of Team Rainbow, forever.

 **AN: That's it for this chapter everyone. Oh yeah, I forgot to put this at the begin, but I won't be sticking with the real world for this story to work out. I'll be changing the names of various world leaders and some events will have to be altered. But a hell of a lot of things will remain the same though. Anyway thank you guys for reading and have a good day!**


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